- Title: Community – Basic Intergluteal Numismatics
- wiki: link
Shoehorning quite a bit into a single 22-minute episode, Greendale is terrorized by the return of the Dave Matthews Band-loving Ass Crack Bandit (first mentioned back in Season Two) who continues to drop quarters in the ass cracks of unsuspecting bent-over victims including Troy (Donald Glover) who apparently will be scarred for life by the experience (at least until next week).
The mystery forces Jeff (Joel McHale) and Annie (Alison Brie) into working closely together, which causes the Dean (Jim Rash) to comment the odd state of their relationship. The mystery, and the pair trying to prove there’s nothing strange about their relationship, allows for several of the show’s best moments, but Glover steals the spotlight as the traumatized ass crack victim. Although the school thinks they’ve finally got their man, neither Jeff nor Annie is so sure.
Honoring both the work of David Fincher and Criminal Minds (where the episode steals its title sequence), the episode also includes the return of Star-Burns (Dino Stamatopoulos) from the dead, the official opening of Shirley‘s (Yvette Nicole Brown) sandwich shop, the return of John Oliver as Professor Ian Duncan, a sled pulled by kittens, and the death of Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase). Although the episode’s zany nature works in its favor, with so much going on hardly any of these stories get their just due, especially the farewell to Pierce who it appears won’t be making any more appearances this season.
I’m so glad this show has survived. It just gets better and better.
My favorite scene was with the Dean trying to get his secretary to trace the call from the bandit. Hilarious. “He’s in the stables. We have stables?”